- August 5, 2026
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As Windermere Town Council Member Tony Davit rode his bike down Main Street Thursday, July 30, he was humbled.
He looked around and saw former Windermere Mayor Jim O’Brien riding next to current Mayor Andy Williams, as well as council members Tom Stroup and CT Allen, and Town Manager Robert Smith and his son riding to Windermere Town Hall with him to support his mission.
As Davit, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1991 to 2017 and achieved the rank of colonel, slowed to a stop in front of the military memorial across Windermere Town Hall, Davit thought about a chief master sergeant and a tech sergeant in the Air Force who were under his command.
The two airmen died by suicide after they left the Air Force.
Arriving at the military memorial signified Davit completing riding 250 miles in the month of July as part of a fundraiser for Stop Soldier Suicide, a national nonprofit with a goal to reduce the military suicide rate by 40%.
“They took a permanent solution to their temporary problems,” Davit said of the service members who took their lives.
Veterans face a 58% higher suicide risk. It is the second leading cause of death in veterans under age 45, according to Stop Soldier Suicide.
According to Challenge 22 Inc., a Winter Garden-based nonprofit working to end veteran suicide, 22 veterans die by suicide in the U.S. every day.
Davit said if his bike ride, fundraiser and efforts to spread awareness can stop one veteran from taking the “permanent solution,” that’s all that matters.
And Davit is not alone.
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Sgt. Chris Usher also participated in a challenge in July with the mission of spreading awareness about veteran suicide rates.
Both Davit and Usher enlisted as young adults.
Davit knew at a young age he wanted to join the Air Force and become a pilot, but once he started pilot training, he was medically disqualified. He went on to become a civil engineer in the Air Force. He was deployed to Southern Europe during the Bosnian War, different areas of Southwest Asia after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and later took the command of two squadrons at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington before finishing his military career at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City.
“Twenty-six years of serving this nation was really important to me, and fortunately or unfortunately, it was during a time that the nation needed me,” Davit said. “I was looking to get out of the Air Force when 9/11 happened, and after that happened, I was like, ‘There’s no way I can possibly get out of the Air Force now; the nation needs me.’”
At 17 years old, Usher said he knew college wasn’t the path for him after graduation, so he walked into the Marine recruiter’s office and asked what he needed to do to become a Marine. He assisted with recruiting 10 other students from his high school and worked with the recruiter to do workouts and more.
Usher’s time in the military and later, the state department, focused primarily on security. He traveled the world and protected dignitaries in 35 countries.
Usher is known to his friends and family as “Crazy Usher,” always finding ways to make people laugh and more often than not, showing up to an event in costume such as dressing as Big Al or a flamingo.
The walk/talks were an opportunity for him to show his serious side, demonstrating his dedication to inclusivity and mental health advocacy.
“No matter how many blisters and (how) much blood and sweat and being lightheaded I felt during this journey, it still doesn’t equal up to the pain of anyone who is thinking about taking their life is in,” Usher said.
Although serving in the military can be a calling for many, it doesn’t always make transitioning back to civilian life easy. Davit said many might have been at the top of their career fields with skills that don’t always translate to the civilian workforce, or it might take time for them to see how their skills can be used in the civilian workforce.
Difficulty adjusting can be a large factor for why veterans need job counseling, mental health counseling, family counseling or other services.
“Most people’s problems are temporary; they might seem overwhelming to everybody as they go through it, but there is help out there,” Davit said.
Davit encouraged people to look into the Veterans Comprehensive Prevention, Access to Care and Treatment Act, which provides free emergency medical and mental health care, including transportation costs, inpatient care for up to 30 days and outpatient care for up to 90 days for veterans. Former service members with more than 24 months of active service under conditions other than dishonorable are eligible, even if they are not enrolled in the VA system.
Military members are not always willing to be vulnerable and ask for help, but Usher said simply asking, “You good?” can be a game-changer. He said it can be an open-ended question.
“Just because somebody looks good doesn’t mean they are,” Usher said.
Although both have been out of the military for years, Usher and Davit found a new mission: spreading awareness on veteran suicide rates.
Usher came across a challenge to walk 2.2 miles per day for a month in honor of the 22 veterans who take their lives each day. He already started going on walks to exercise, and it didn’t take him long to realize “it was something probably bigger than that.”
He not only decided to walk 2.2 miles every day and he also did 22 push-ups and 22 squats before and after each walk.
Usher culminated his challenge Friday, July 31, by walking 22 miles and doing 22 push-ups and 22 squats after every 2.2 miles around areas in Windermere and Horizon West.
When he finished his 22-mile journey wearing his veteran hat and U.S. Marine Corps shirt, he slowed so he would arrive at the end, which was PopStroke in Hamlin, at exactly 2:20 p.m. A group of family and friends cheered as he walked the last few hundreds of feet with a small American flag waving in the breeze as it stuck out of his backpack.
“The soldiers that have taken their lives, it’s sad, but this is for the service members who are still alive and they are struggling,” Usher said.
Over 12 bike rides of a little more than 20 miles each ride, Davit completed his mission of 250 miles in July.
He said 250 miles is a plethora of time to think about how to end veteran suicide and what every person can do to help with the mission.
To complete his mission, Davit rode the last 1.6 miles from the Windermere Recreation Center to Town Hall alongside other residents.
“It was a proud moment and made me realize why I live in Windermere,” Davit said of arriving at Town Hall with his neighbors.
Davit raised nearly $3,400 through individual donations as well as donations from the Windermere Legacy Fund and the Allen Family Foundation. He said he is blessed to have the support.
“If it helps just one service member not take that final step, this is well worth it, absolutely well worth it,” Davit said. “I would much rather them pick up the phone and reach out and talk through this before taking that ultimate step. If (Stop Soldier Suicide) can do that outreach and reach those folks that are contemplating taking their own life and stopping just one, that’s super important.”
